Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.

Game 17: Yankees at Rays

The Yankees will go for their sixth straight victory tonight here at Tropicana Field, playing the second game of a four-game series with the Rays. Hiroki Kuroda and Erik Bedard comprise the pitching matchup, with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET. The game is on YES and MLB Network, and also WFAN.

Some quick hits from Joe Girardi’s pregame session…

Carlos Beltran had an MRI on his left shoulder and right wrist after last night’s tumble over a short wall in right field. The tests were clean, but today is going to just be a treatment day for Beltran and he’s unavailable to play. Beltran is hopeful that he’ll be in tomorrow night’s lineup.

Brian Roberts is out of the lineup, but Girardi said that was because Roberts wasn’t going to play four games on the turf. He ran a lot last night, so Girardi thought tonight would be a good night to give him off. Roberts also said everything was fine.

Mark Teixeira had five Minor League at-bats today over in Tampa. He’s scheduled to play seven innings tomorrow and is on track to be in Sunday’s lineup against left-hander Cesar Ramos.

Sunday’s Yankees starter is still TBA, though Girardi is leaning toward Vidal Nuno. The Red Sox will see Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia next week at Fenway Park.

David Robertson had fielding practice today at the Trop. He’ll pitch tomorrow in a Minor League game and believes he will be ready for activation Tuesday.

Dellin Betances is unavailable tonight after throwing two innings last night.

I agree that Phelps, Warren, and Kelley don’t have the talent to be closers in the majors, heck Phelps most likely isn’t a major league starter, at best he is a middle reliever, once again he struggled. I’ve been saying this from the start.

Warren has been decent, though, this was his first blow up of the season, I would give him more slack. I would rather see Matt Thornton in a closer role at least he has more experience than any of these guys in that role.

Kuroda allowed 3 runs. The Yankees offense didn’t tack on more runs when they had the chance. The pen couldn’t hold off the Ray’s hitters. Blown what could have been another win and thus create a bigger gap in the division between the Yankees and teams behind them. And not sure about the next 2 games if Nova and Nuno start. Saving Tanaka for the Sox but the Yanks have to get by the Rays first. Not good enough to just split the series or possibly lose it.

Actually it’s no surprise this team has trudged to score runs and win more games than it has. The Yanks are only 16th in the majors scoring runs, very average. They leave an average of 4.24 runners in scoring position per game, that’s dead last in the majors despite being 2nd in BA .277 and OPS and 3rd in OPS .768. Those numbers obviously mean little if you can’t get runners over. They’re only 16th in BA with RISP with a .242 BA. This team isn’t built to come back on teams when they fall behind, and will continue to score runs and win games if this doesn’t change.

cough up a 4 run lead. Bull pen stinks tonight. Could have nailed this game down with 5 runs but pen blew it. They’ve been great up to this point but Rays all over them tonight. Hope the Yankees come back in final inning but don’t hold your breath

Meis, we all know how much you preferred Melky but breaking news, he’s gone and Gardner was extended. Let me humor your illogic. If we traded Gardner, we would have 4 OFs, one of which is a DH most nights. Ichiro is a great defender but his offense is average, Beltran and Soriano defense is atrocious. We are one injury away from lacking depth there too. I am guessing your proposal includes trading Gardner and keep Vernon Wells, your a riot.
Like this
By rcgolf122 on April 17, 2014 11:23 am –

Is that skunk I smell? Nope,its just mor of bpuke’s deluded BS stinking up the board as usual. step away from that crystal meth for a moment, We know you’re still smarting over the loss of your boyfriend, Granderson who is stinking it up as a starter, yes he actually is a starting outfielder and not a backup as you previously, and as usual mistakenly stated hewas in a previous post LOL!!!!!

Once again you show a real talent of stating the obvious and no ability of showing any real intelligence.

Individually those three can produce far more offensive results than Gardner can at the very least equal Gardner’s offensive stats. So the would have lost nothing offensively, saying otherwise is just idiotic.

Who said the team would have stood pat with what they already had.Who is to say they wouldn’t have acquired someone else to fill the hole left byGardner’s absence. At the very leastthis team would have gone with a platoon system of Ichiro/Soriano/Beltran. Granted, that’s no one’s ideal scenario, but one that this team would have been willing to go with. It’s not as if this team would have missed him, they didn’t miss him in 2012 when he missed most of the season and the tes,am had to use a platoon system when he was gone. Team actually made the playoffs without him and got better offensive numbers with him out of the lineup than if he were in it.

The team was one injury from lacking depth in the OF? Well genius, that just goes to show us where your head has been for months. Take a look at the infield, there are injury/talent/age issues at every position except catcher, and NO, JR Murphy isn’t about to be used at every position. Get a grip on reality!! I’m talking about improving one area of the team while youre talking about one player in the
OF where we do have some depth and a player this team could have traded had they wanted to.How does this make sense to your twisted logic?

You still don’t think before you post. I guess old habits are hard to break.

What I’d give to have unintelligent trolls who are wasted on drugs such as yourself permanently banned from this site.

Like this
By yankmeister on April 18, 2014 4:03 pm –

Serious question. Why are you so angry all the time? Drug use? We are here to express our opinion. If you don’t like it go elsewhere. Are you even asian anyway or is that a front too?

Back in time

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.